East Meadow Woman Arrested for Wrong-way DWI Crash

An East Meadow woman was arrested for driving drunk the wrong way on two parkways before crashing head-on with another vehicle early Monday morning, New York State police said.

Christine A. Shefts, 51, was charged with driving while intoxicated and is expected to be arraigned bedside after she was hospitalized for treatment of injuries suffered in the crash, police said.

Troopers were responding to calls of a driver traveling northbound in the southbound lanes of Wantagh State Parkway when they caught up with the suspect as she was heading eastbound in the westbound of Northern State Parkway shortly after 4 a.m., police said.

Troopers, who had their emergency lights flashing, tried to block Shefts’ vehicle, but she drove passed them and struck another vehicle, police said. Investigators found the suspect to be under the influence of alcohol, police said.

She was taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow after suffering minor injuries. The driver of the second vehicle suffered a minor hand injury.

Investigators ask anyone who witnessed the wrong way driver or subsequent collision to call them at 631-756-3300.

Timothy Bolger is the Editor in Chief of the Long Island Press who’s been working to uncover unreported stories since shortly after it launched in 2003. When he’s not editing, getting hassled by The Man or fielding cold calls to the newsroom, he covers crime, general interest and political news in addition to reporting longer, sometimes investigative features. He won’t be happy until everyone is as pissed off as he is about how screwed up Lawn Guyland is.